October 09, 2002

The Teflon Gang

As usual, the anticipated, universal condemnation of Israel over the recent IDF operation in Khan Yunis raised in my mind three questions.

First, Kofi’s participation in the anti-Israel chorus triggers the question as to whether the person who was condemned by the UN itself over Rwanda is the right person to cast the first stone at our sister-democracy in the Middle East. For those who do not remember Kofi’s role in the Rwanda genocide, here is a reminder, quoted from an official UN report (page 30, beginning of Section III):

The Independent Inquiry finds that the response of the United Nations before and during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda failed in a number of fundamental respects. The responsibility for the failings of the United Nations to prevent and stop the genocide in Rwanda lies with a number of different actors, in particular the Secretary-General, the Secretariat, the Security Council, UNAMIR and the broader membership of the United Nations. This international responsibility is one which warrants a clear apology by the Organization and by Member States concerned to the Rwandese people.

But Kofi is a Teflon man, and nothing will stick to him even as he maligns our sister-democracy, Israel.

Second question: why is it that the causes of the Khan Yunis operation deserve no condemnation whatever, even as Israel is pilloried for engaging in self-defense? The constant shelling of Israeli settlements from the Gaza Strip has not eluded the press, nor has the fact that the Gaza Strip is home to terrorists who don't even bother to conceal their determination to murder Israeli civilians; and yet there is barely a reference to the terrorists’ provocation in the midst of the chorus of anti-Israeli condemnation. Interestingly, at the end of July, 2002 (a mere two months ago), Israel went after the arch-terrorist Salah Shehada and several civilians were killed in the course of assassinating him. The chorus of standard condemnations that followed inevitably was answered in an article posted by an article in the Wall Street Journal/Opinion Journal on July 27, 2002. The article, entitled Civilian Casualties: No Apology Needed - America should learn from Israel, not criticize it, was authored by Ralph Peters, introduced as “a retired Army officer”, and “the author of Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World”. In his article, Ralph Peters notes, inter alia:

Earlier this week, Israel succeeded in killing Salah Shehada, a savage Hamas mastermind, and one of his top aides. A dozen Palestinian civilians died in the attack, including members of Shehada's family. The civilian deaths may be lamentable, but they also were justifiable. A terrorist leader used his relatives and neighbors as shields, and they died with him. Their deaths were Shehada's fault, not Israel's.

Once again, much of the world has applied a double standard, accusing Israel of barbarity for inflicting civilian casualties as part of a legitimate military operation, while overlooking the hundreds of Israeli civilians killed intentionally by Shehada and his subordinates. For Europeans, especially, Jewish lives count no more today than they did in 1944.

Why are Palestinian terrorists allowed to target civilians without exciting an international outcry, while every accidental civilian death inflicted by Israel is a crime against humanity?

But the Palestinian Arab terrorists are Teflon men, and nothing will stick to them even as the Quartet maligns our sister-democracy, Israel.

The third question is this: quite apart from terrorist acts against Israel, the Palestinian Arabs are guilty of the most despicable conduct, from internecine murder, through the use of ambulances and children as war weapons, to overt antisemitism. Yet this conduct goes un-noticed by those who are so overly eager to pounce on Israel at every turn. A detailed documentation of the foregoing allegation warrants a separate article, but for the sake of illustration, following is a random collection of recent incidents concerning “collaborators”; all the human rights abuses listed below were reported in a 16 day period:

1. On August 24, 2002, the Jerusalem Post reported that

At least 200 Palestinians suspected of collaboration with Israel are being held in Palestinian Authority prisons, according to informed Palestinian sources. Many of them have complained of torture and may face execution.

2. The next day, August 25, Reuters reported under the headline, Palestinians Kill Woman 'Collaborator' in West Bank:

Palestinian militants accusing a woman of collaborating with Israel wrenched her from her West Bank home, took her to the town square and shot her dead, Palestinians said Sunday.

Ikhlas Yassin, a 35-year-old mother of three, was forced out of her Tulkarm house Saturday night, made to confess to collaborating with Israel and shot in the chest and head by militants in a group linked to President Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction.